Bulldogs, Eagles seal Spikers' Turf title duel

Games Monday

1 p.m. – NCBA vs EAC (best-of-three for third)

3 p.m. – Ateneo vs NU (best-of-three for crown)

MANILA, Philippines - National U pulled through with clutch hits and blocks in the fourth set, beating Emilio Aguinaldo College for the second straight time, 25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22, yesterday and nailing the first finals berth in the first Spikers’ Turf-Season I Collegiate Conference crown at The Arena in San Juan.

Ateneo arranged a best-of-three showdown for the crown with NU as the Eagles also repeated over the National College of Business and Arts Wildcats in the other semifinal match.

Leaving nothing to chance, the Eagles overwhelmed the Wildcats in the first two sets with their superb all-around game then weathered NCBA’s tough stand in the third set to complete another sweep, 25-19, 25-13, 25-22.

Carlo Glorioso scored off a quick set at center to snap NCBA’s back-to-back hits and finish off the Wildcats in 69 minutes, keeping the Eagles’ unbeaten run all the way to the championship of the league presented by PLDT Home Ultera.

Game One of the finals is set Monday.

Skipper Ysrael Marasigan and Marck Espejo fired 11 hits apiece while Joshua Villanueva and Paul Koyfman banged in 10 points each for the Eagles, who overpowered the Wildcats in spikes, 50-26.

Guest players Edwin Tolentino and Reyson Fuentes combined for just nine hits while playing in just the first two sets with Ralph Oclima, Jason Canlas, Paul Domingo, Angelo Ugoy and Daryl Villanueva pooling 22 points for NCBA.

Foiled in their straight-set bid, the Bulldogs countered the Generals’ power with superb blocking in the fiercely fought fourth frame, thwarting a number of EAC kills, including one that helped close out the match in one minute, 42 seconds.

NU, which warded off EAC, 25-23, 26-28, 25-18, 26-28, 15-11, in the best-of-three semis opener of the league backed by Mikasa and organized by Sports Vision last Monday, finished with 14 blocks, nine more than the reigning NCAA champions.

League scoring leader Howard Mojica came away with another 31-hit job but failed to connect in a back-and-forth battle in the fourth as the Bulldogs put up two, three-man defensive efforts that took the sting out of the Generals.

NU also showed up with another balanced scoring with four players putting in double-digit outputs, including Madzlan Gampon, who had 19 markers, and Bryan Bagunas, who punched in 15 attack points for a 17-hit job.

Fauzi Ismail and Kim Malabunga also combined for 22 hits as the four effectively neutralized Mojica’s effort with only Hariel Doguna scoring the other double-digit output for EAC with 11 points.